On the day New York was attacked by aliens, everyone was watching the Avengers. I, Lisa Takahashi, was working at Starbucks when I looked out the window. Iron Man flew across the sky, Captain America threw his shield. Everyone cheered. But I noticed something. In the shadow of a building, a man was moving quietly. He wasn't fighting. Yet he was placing small devices here and there. What was that? I dropped my register and followed him. Because at that moment, my heart was pounding so hard. Just
After the Hero Left - In the basement of a collapsed building, I will save you.
The rain was still falling.
Water droplets striking the window made wet sounds beyond the thin curtain. Takahashi Lisa stood before the front door, pulling the hood of her waterproof parka down low. Black skinny jeans, sneaker laces tied tight. Her fingertips trembled faintly.
*(Kyle went to the exchange location.)*
She remembered last night. The words he'd said to her in the back alley. "Don't see me anymore" — at that moment, Kyle had definitely been smiling. But his eyes hadn't been. By pushing her away, he'd been trying to protect her. She understood that, which made her chest ache all the more.
*(I won't let him go alone. Absolutely not.)*
The place he'd headed to. Radiant. A small bar in the back streets of Hell's Kitchen. Kyle's regular spot, run single-handedly by Johnny McBride, a former firefighter. Kyle had told her before that it was also a place where Section Gray people unofficially exchanged information.
Her phone buzzed. A call from Amy.
"I'm in front of your apartment right now. Hurry up and come down. You planning to make me wait in this rain?"
"Y-you're already here!? That's way too fast!"
"It's been a full ten minutes since you called. I may not look it, but I get ready fast. More importantly, you're really going? To that former SHIELD guy's place."
"I'm going. If I don't, Kyle will... he might already be captured. So I have to hurry."
On the other end of the line, Amy let out a deep sigh. Mixed with the rain, she could hear the sound of taxi wipers.
"...You really are an idiot. Why did the guy you fell for have to be someone with the most dangerous job in the world?"
"But, I can't help caring about him. And besides, since I fell for him, I can't just leave him alone."
"Yeah, yeah. For beautiful friendship and love, right? Anyway, get down here. We'll talk in the car."
The call ended.
Lisa touched the gold necklace at her throat. A small pendant from her mother. The cold metal brought a faint sense of reassurance to her fingertips.
*(Let's go.)*
She turned off the lights and opened the door. The cold air of the hallway brushed against her damp hairline.
---
The back seat of the taxi.
Amy had tied her light brown hair back into a single ponytail. Light makeup, dressed for mobility in a black hoodie and jeans. Her sharp, upturned eyes were fixed intently on her phone screen.
"So, this bar called Radiant — where in Hell's Kitchen is it?"
"Um, I heard it's on a back street... but I don't know the exact address. But I'm pretty sure it's near a fire station, a small place with lots of old photos on the walls."
"That describes every bar in New York."
"Ugh, I'll find it properly, okay!"
Amy put a hand to her mouth, unable to suppress a small laugh.
"...It's fine. Like you said, I can narrow it down with the map on my phone. In Hell's Kitchen, there are only a handful of bars run by former firefighters. And we know the name — 'Radiant.' One search and we'll find it."
The taxi drove west through Manhattan, hazy with rain. The neon of Times Square bled into the wet asphalt. In the distance, thunder rumbled low.
Lisa gripped her phone. No contact from Kyle since that conversation in the alley.
*(Please, be safe.)*
Her heart was beating in a strange rhythm.
---
The back streets of Hell's Kitchen.
When they got out of the taxi, the wind drove the rain at them sideways. Lisa grimaced and reached for Amy's arm.
"It's darker here than I expected..."
"Hell's Kitchen at night is like this. Come on, let's find the bar quickly."
The two walked, avoiding puddles. There was no one on the street. Emergency lights from old buildings cast thin beams onto the wet ground.
"Ah."
Lisa stopped. A small sign.
"Radiant" — the letters were faded. Orange light leaked from the shop window. On the wall, several photographs of the city from before the New York invasion were displayed.
"This is it. This is definitely it."
Lisa pushed open the wooden door. A small bell rang.
The interior was more compact than she'd imagined. Eight seats at the counter. Four tables in the back. Behind the polished wooden counter stood a large man with a white mustache.
"Well, this is unusual. Two young ladies out on a stormy night like this."
Johnny McBride. Sixty-two years old. A former firefighter who had rescued twelve people from beneath the rubble during the New York invasion — something of a local hero. Now he ran this small bar.
"Um, excuse me. I need to talk to you about Kyle O'Connor."
Lisa stepped forward. Johnny's hand set down the glass he'd been polishing.
"...You know Kyle?"
A sharp gaze. The eyes of a former firefighter who had seen the heart of fires.
"I'm Takahashi Lisa. I work at Starbucks, and Kyle... well, I've been helping him a little with debris cleanup work. He might have gone to a dangerous exchange location. I came because I want to stop him."
Lisa spoke breathlessly. Amy stood behind her with her arms crossed.
Johnny stared at Lisa's face for a long moment, then eventually pulled a scrap of paper from beneath the counter.
"...Kyle left something with me."
He unfolded the paper. Neat handwriting, unusual for a man. The moment Lisa saw those letters, she felt something deep in her chest freeze cold.
*'If I don't come back, contact Margaret Sawyer. The exchange location is Ground Fall, east side of the reconstruction zone, the basement of the collapsed Hanover Trust Bank. The other party is Dario Fenz. Former SHIELD logistics manager, now founder of Voidcrest. He's after access rights to Section Gray's hazardous materials asset ledger. Contact info is on the back of this paper. I'm counting on you.'*
Lisa stared at the hand holding the paper. Her fingertips trembled faintly.
*(If I don't come back.)*
*(From the very beginning, Kyle...)*
*(...never intended to come back?)**
That fact rose up to her throat. Her breathing grew shallow. The edges of her vision blurred.
"...Kyle, when did he give this to you?"
"Last night. He came into the bar and had just one drink. A man who usually takes an hour over a single bourbon left in five minutes. He left this note behind when he went."
A man who took an hour left in five minutes.
Something inside Lisa's chest shattered.
"...I have to go. I'm going. I won't let Kyle be alone."
A tear ran down her cheek.
"You know the place? Hanover Trust Bank is one of the most dangerous spots in the reconstruction zone. Dead center of the red zone designation. The fence is weak, but there's still fuel and all sorts of things sleeping under those collapsed buildings."
"It's fine. It's near a place he told me about before. I can make it."
Johnny looked at Lisa steadily.
"...Take care of Kyle. That man has always tried to shoulder everything alone. The type who'd rush in to save a child left behind in a fire without a thought for his own life. But that guy — when he was being chased by a girl like you, he finally looked like he remembered the warmth of another person."
Those words sank deep into her chest.
Lisa wiped her tears.
"I will definitely bring him back."
Amy quietly stepped up beside Lisa.
"I'm going too. I can't let you go to a dangerous place like that alone."
Johnny took a sturdy-looking flashlight from the corner of the bar and handed it to Lisa.
"It's old, but waterproof. And there are two folding umbrellas in the stand. Take them. At least don't catch a cold getting soaked in the rain."
---
The storm had grown stronger than before.
The outer fence of the reconstruction zone gleamed cold under the rain. Lisa and Amy searched for a gap in the fence.
"Over here, that hole... oh, found it! It's open a little right here."
Amy looked at Lisa's face with worry.
"...You're really going through with this. Is my glorious college life going to end in a place like this?"
"It's fine. I'll protect you. You're my best friend, right? If it's the two of us, we'll definitely be okay."
Lisa said it with a trembling voice.
*(I'll protect you, I said. What can I even do?)*
*(I know it in my head. I don't have the power to fly through the sky like the Avengers, or the skill to fire a gun.)*
*(His ex-girlfriend — she could defeat enemies in an instant.)*
*(But even so. There must be something only I can do.)*
Lisa slipped through the hole in the fence. The cold iron slid against her back through the parka.
The reconstruction zone was soaked with rain. Rubble and mud underfoot. Melted steel beams and shattered glass scattered everywhere.
"...Lisa, over there. According to the map, Hanover Trust Bank is three hundred meters northeast of here. Where two collapsed buildings stand side by side."
"Got it. Let's take a shortcut here. Kyle taught me the roads around the abandoned buildings before. If we take this back alley, it's close to the underground entrance of the collapsed building."
Lisa switched on the flashlight. The beam illuminated the curtain of rain in white.
*(That time, Kyle told me: "This place is dangerous. Never go in alone.")*
*(Contradictory. Even though he came alone himself.)*
*(I know that's the kind of person he is. The more dangerous it gets, the more he carries it alone.)*
The rain intensified. No time to even hold an umbrella. Cold water ran from the edge of her hood down her neck.
Amy gripped Lisa's left hand. Her fingers were cold, but undeniably warm.
"I won't do anything reckless. But I absolutely won't give up on him. If this is what you've decided, I'll stick with you to the end."
"...Thank you."
With tears and rain mixed on her face, Lisa smiled faintly.
*(Let's go.)*
The two climbed over a pile of rubble and found an entrance leading underground through a crack in a collapsed wall.
---
The underground was a different kind of stillness from the surface.
The sound of rain was distant. Cool air. Concrete dust. Somewhere, the sound of dripping water echoed rhythmically.
Lisa and Amy hid in the shadow of a collapsed pillar.
*(There.)*
A wide underground space. What had once been the bank's vault. Now, half-destroyed walls, exposed pipes, and scattered debris spread out before them. In the center, several pale blue lights floated. Energy cells from modified Chitauri weapons. They were lined up on a folding table.
More than ten people present.
Lisa held her breath.
"Amy, over there..."
She communicated without voice, moving only her lips.
"...That's Kyle, isn't it."
Lisa's heart made a grinding sound.
He was tied to a pillar. Men in black tactical gear had restrained his arms and legs. His dark brown hair was matted with blood and mud, and his gray work jacket was torn in places.
"Kyle..."
The voice escaped her. Amy covered Lisa's mouth.
"Quiet. Those guys have guns."
Looking, the armed men held weapons that appeared to be modified blasters. Misshapen guns with Chitauri technology forcibly integrated. Those were Voidcrest's main products.
*(So this is Voidcrest.)*
Lisa swallowed hard. The pit of her stomach clenched tight.
At that moment, the sound of cold applause echoed through the underground space.
"Well, well, Kyle O'Connor. It's been a while. Though I wonder — do you remember me?"
Dario Fenz. Forty-seven years old. His thinning black hair was slicked back, and his murky gray eyes looked down at the bound Kyle as if appraising him. He slowly turned a silver ring on his finger.
Kyle slowly raised his head.
"...You're the logistics section chief. The one who ran off with the asset ledger when SHIELD collapsed."
The corner of his lip was split, blood seeping out.
"Oh, so you do remember me. I'm flattered. But I'm not 'section chief' anymore. I'm the head of Voidcrest. Well, I suppose it makes no difference to you either way. After all, you'll always be an underpaid janitor."
Dario walked up to Kyle. One of his subordinates offered a folding chair.
"I'll be direct. The Section Gray hazardous materials asset ledger. Give me the access rights to it."
"Like hell I'd hand it over. That's the final list to keep the world fr
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